


Incoming

by RurouniHime



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Cell Phones, Flip Phone, Infinity Gems, M/M, Missing Scene, Pre-Slash, Shock, Steve Rogers Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-08 20:19:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14701464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RurouniHime/pseuds/RurouniHime
Summary: The phone rings.Itrings.





	Incoming

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Spark](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14543655) by [RurouniHime](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RurouniHime/pseuds/RurouniHime). 



> Call this... a prequel to the Spark series.

The phone rings.

It _rings._

It’s shrill, accusatory. Steve fumbles it off the crate top, nearly sends it skidding over the floor before he gets traction enough to open it.

_Incoming Call: Tony Stark_

He hits green. “Tony?”

Someone draws a breath, familiar. Not right. “No, Steve, it’s, it’s Bruce.”

Bruce. The how, the why, the how, damn it, _how_ incinerates in a flash. Steve’s gut drops, full of lead. “Where’s Tony?”

Bruce sounds old, even sighing. “Tony’s gone.”

Steve stares at the phone, drawn back from his face now, and Bruce is still talking but there’s an atonal hum in Steve’s ears and he can’t hear. 

He brings the phone back to his ear; sound washes in. “...attacked New York. They got what they wanted. The ship’s gone now, Tony went after it. But this is big, bigger than anything before. So I... I called.”

Before he knows it, Steve’s down, thumped on his ass on the floor, legs askew and the wall cold against his spine. The room is little and dark, the lights low wattage and the windows filmy with smog from the street outside. “He’s gone.”

“I can’t reach him, no one can reach him, but Steve, listen to me, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I was just with Thor, and this guy these aliens are with... he... Steve, we need everyone, and I mean everyone, or we don’t have a prayer.”

Somehow Steve finds the remote, turns on the battered TV they rigged up to the wall. There are only four stations here, but three of them are playing it in vivid color: A hoop bristling with machinery, grinding its way through the street, cars and lampposts and chunks of building flying as though flicked by a child’s hand, flashes of gold, flashes of blue. The ship, rolling up through the atmosphere, and Iron Man, roaring into the thinning sky after it as though his very existence is tethered to that thing.

_Billionaire Tony Stark: MISSING_

He listens as Bruce describes what happened to Thor, the four beings who took the ship and the way their leader beat the Hulk into the ground with barely a thought. “Something’s coming,” Bruce says, “something _big._ If you know where Vision is, you have to find him. They want the infinity stones. They’ll be coming for him next.”

“I’ll get him,” Steve says dully, and ends the call.

The news report rattles on in the background, static flattening words. Steve tries to _see_ it, to understand, but it’s like there’s a gap the electrical signals just can’t jump. Again and again, Iron Man roars up into the atmosphere. Not once does he come back down.

Inhale.

Steve’s jaw hurts. The pain is irritating, digging around in the back of his skull.

Exhale. 

This isn’t how it was supposed to go. Tony was going to _call_ him, they were going to sort this out. Steve was going to apologize for what’s happened to them, find some way to make this right.

Inhale.

The door opens. “Hey, what do you know about the FHSS? I always thought I knew a lot but my earpiece has been—Steve?”

A second later, Nat is at his side, on her knees with one hand squeezing his forearm right at the elbow. A pressure point. “Steve. What?”

He’s crushing the phone. The top screen has already cracked, the hinge given way entirely on one side.

Exhale.

This isn’t how it was supposed to go.

_“Steve.”_

He hauls in a third breath, nods at the TV, and Natasha cranes around. Five seconds (one breath), then— 

“Tony.” She says it very softly. Steve’s sure he wasn’t meant to hear. When she turns back, there’s nothing but a chill on her face. “What’s the endgame?”

“Infinity stones.” He looks down at the phone in his hand. “That was Bruce.”

Natasha never gives much away, but this time, he hears it. He feels it. He doesn’t chase it. If she won’t chase his, he’ll do her the same courtesy.

“Someone’s finally come looking.” Steve hauls himself to his feet. His joints ache, all of a sudden he’s exhausted, and he’s done nothing to cause it. Nothing but learn that Tony is gone. “We have to get Vision.”

The rest... The rest will have to wait.

~fin~


End file.
